E00763: Prudentius in his Latin Crowns of the Martyrs (Peristephanon), in a poem on the martyrdom of *Emeterius and Celidonius (soldiers and martyrs of Calahorra, S00410), written c. 400 in Calahorra (northern Spain) tells of a soldier who stole the acts of martyrdom of Emeterius and Celidonius, so that their cult did not spread.

Liber Peristephanon, Poem I.73-81

Prudentius recounts the martyrdom of Emeterius and Chelidonius, and adds:

O uetustatis silentis obsoleta obliuio!
Inuidentur ista nobis fama et ipsa extinguitur,
75 chartulas blasfemus olim nam satelles abstulit,

ne tenacibus libellis erudita saecula
ordinem tempus modumque passionis proditum
dulcibus linguis per aures posterorum spargerent.

Hoc tamen solum uetusta subtrahunt silentia,
80 iugibus longum catenis an capillum pauerint,
quo uiros dolore tortor quaue pompa ornauerit.

'Alas for what is forgotten and lost to knowledge in the silence of the olden time! We are denied the facts about these matters, the very tradition is destroyed, for long ago an abusive soldier of the guard took away the records, lest generations, taught by documents that held the memory secure, should make public the details, the time and manner of their martyrdom, and spread them abroad in sweet speech for posterity to hear. Yet all that the silence of the old days takes from us is the knowledge whether their hair grew long with constant imprisonment, and what pains the tormentor laid on the heroes, or rather with what triumph he furnished them.'

Text: Cunningham 1966: 254. Translation: Thomson 1953, 104-105, lightly adapted.